Speech #850196547

Mr. Speaker. in this mornings newspaper there is an account of the deportation of an alien from San Francisco. Several Members have asked me whether or not this deportation was an example of highhanded administrative abuse of power. I want to say that it was not. General Swing. the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization. has been very careful in protecting the rights of aliens in these circumstances. From the information furnished to me. I am satisfied that in the action taken in San Francisco last Friday the Immigration and Naturalization Service has not acted contrary to existing law nor have they acted in defiance of any court orders. In this particular case. the person who was deported admitted membership first in the Young Communist League. beginning in 1926. then in the Workers Communist Party. beginning in 1928. continuing his membership in the Communist Party until at least 1939. The same alien admitted at a hearing held in 1949 that he left the Communist Party and transferred his activities to the International Workers OrderIWOa Communistfront organization. and so held to be by the Attorney General. Deportation proceedings against this alien were conducted under the Immigration Act of 1917. as amended. and judicial review was sought by him. reaching the Supreme Court of the United States where a decision dismissing his petition was rendered on March 16. 1953. There was no remedy for that alien in any of the statutes on the books prior to December 24. 1952. As of that date. the Immigration and Nationality ActWalterMcCarran Actprovided a remedy in the form of suspension of deportation based on the ground that the alien had a United States citizen wife and that his deportation would cause extreme hardship to her. Incidentally. the alien entered into matrimony with a United States citizen after the order of his deportation was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States and his wife must have known full well at the time they were married that the man was under an order of deportation. The petition for suspension of deportation filed under section 244 (a) (5) of the WalterMcCarran Act was dismissed on February 9. 1956. by the very liberal Board of Immigration Appeals. which found that at no time has the petitioner shown opposition to the Communist movement and that his affiliation with that movement continued through the years up to the time his petition was considered. At that particular time. the alien was. according to his own testimony. associated with the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born. a leading Communist front organization referred to as "the legal arm cf the Communist Party." After the denial of suspension of deportation under the WalterMcCarran Act became effective. a final warrant of deportation was issued on March 24. 1956. but various judicial tests have for 2 more years thwarted our Governments attempt to rid this country of this devoted Communist agent. On April 14. 1958. the United States District Court in San Francisco dismissed the most recent petition filed by him. I am satisfied that at the time of his deportation there were no legal restraints against carrying out a lawful warrant of deportation.